How The Lent Thing Went

So you'll remember that this week I was doing a Lent Thing, in which I was choosing to see good in people and not bad. The masses have been clamouring to know how it went (mainly they seem to have been led by espero), so here is how it went.

Now, in all honesty, it was an easier than average week, as all social things were Off For Easter, so I basically worked like mad and didn't really talk to anyone, apart from some work people, who didn't annoy me.  And I also talked to Sister Smile, but I'm not allowed to talk about her on the blog.  And it's not that the people I generally socialise with annoy me, but I have a word limit of approximately 50 per day, and once that's exceeded I get narked fairly quickly.

However, there were a couple of people I was quite annoyed with (I won't say who, because some of you might know them, and then my annoyance will turn into A Situation), but I wasn't actually talking to them, so I privately seethed a bit and then mostly forgot about it.  So I think we can say it went well, but that it wasn't exactly a challenge, and therefore we shall continue it until such times as it becomes an actual Issue.

I think the core of the issue is that I don't really generally get annoyed with people any more, having realised that my main responsibility in life is to ensure that I am doing the best I can to love them, and there is nothing they can do to stop me (mwah ha ha).

So since there was nothing much to report about my week, we shall instead consider some things that happened to me today.

Firstly, in church we had an Easter Egg hunt, which was fun, but mainly for the children.  At the end they each got 2 chocolate eggs, and were told to keep one and give the other to someone they love.  One of the younger boys gave his to me, which made me feel all loved and not so much a waste of space, so that was nice.

Then in Sunday School, we were talking about the Easter story, and for reasons I won't go into, we had Bible Class in with us as well as Sunday School, giving an age range of 4-14.  Which became an issue when one of the children asked "How come God was Jesus' father and also Joseph was Jesus' father?".  My immediate response was along the lines of God being Jesus' actual father who made Mary pregnant and Joseph being married to Jesus' mother, but thankfully (and unexpectedly) I caught onto the potential dangers of this line of thought before any of it came out of my mouth, and thus I avoided giving a full-blown sex education lesson to the assembled group.

Now I'm at the parents' for a few days, which is nice.  There's talk of building a fence to replace the one my dad and I made about 15 years ago, so that may be tomorrow's task.

A Lent Thing

According to Blogger, you can now view WhyNotSmile in 5 different ways.  I don't know how.  But that's 5 times as much WhyNotSmile, which can only be a good thing.

Anyway, to get back to the point.  Many moons ago, I had a year out, in which I did this. We had a saying (it may have been the motto, or we may have made it up; also, I may not remember it entirely accurately) which said "Encourage good wherever you find it; if you can't find it, look harder".

Now this is a Good Plan for many reasons.  For instance, it's Biblical.  We should encourage good things, because those are from God, and therefore... well... good.  And also, it enables us to get along with people who would otherwise annoy the feck out of us.  Everyone has some merits, however deeply buried, and it is always nice to focus on those and not on the things that make us want to stab them in the face.

Over time, one finds that the person one previously suspected of being an arrogant, irritating fecker of a waste of space, actually has some redeeming features, and if one can encourage those, one tends to get on a lot better with the person, which is helpful if one is stuck with them in a confined space, such as an office.

Also, when one focusses on someone's good points, the other person begins to trust one more, which means that when you say "You know, you're really quite irritating when you do that", they tend to listen more and sometimes even try to stop doing it.

It also helps a lot with the Biblical command to "love one another", which is, in many circles, deemed to be Of Note.

So this week, as my Lent thing (which we're finally getting round to starting; don't judge me, at least I'm trying (encourage good, see?)), I hereby proclaim that I shall make an extra special effort to do this all week, and to look for good things all over the place, and not snark over much about bad things; and also, I shall not just stay in the house so I don't have to see people, because that would be cheating.

If you would like to join me, please feel free to leave comments about how great I am.

Thanks.

What I've Been Wondering

Here's a question which has been troubling me.  It's about the census (which we know I'm a big fan of).  Every household has to fill in a form, yes?  Otherwise you get fined £1000 (in theory).  But how do they know whether you've filled in all the people?

Like, what was to stop me from just listing myself and not adding Sister Smile?  I didn't obviously, because that would be Lying On A Form, and I Do Not Do That, out of Principle.  But I could have done that.  Sister Smile would not have cared (she thought the form was voluntary anyway).  Would that mean that as far as the government is concerned, she had vanished?  Would they notice?  What if I had a pet and added them?  I could make up information for them.  Would anyone notice that a new person had appeared?

I think what confuses me is that I have never really understood why the government doesn't know who lives where. I mean, quite a number of government departments send me letters, about things like tax, and my car, and rates.  Any they gave me my birth certificate.  Twice, in fact, because I lost the original one.

I suspect it is all some sort of thing whereby people are not happy with the government knowing this information, because that would involve joining the dots from one agency to another, and that would be very Big Brother and so on.  Anyway, if they did that, I would not have got to fill in the Census form, so I'm not saying I mind.  I'm just saying.

On How I Would Like The Way Things Work To Be Different

It is fashionable these days, in Evangelical circles at least, to point out at every opportunity that "I'm a Christian, I don't 'do' religion". It's one of those provocative things that's meant to make the listener say "Oh! You shock me! Please explain all about this as I have been stunned into curiosity.". In practice, of course, most people don't really give a fiddler's fart, as they mostly have other things on their mind than you.

Anyway. My point is that I quite liked it in the Olden Days, when it was all about religion, and rules and so on. You know where you are with the Ten Commandments. I am reasonably confident I have never committed adultery, and, quite frankly, my neighbour can keep his ass. Mine's nicer anyway. I do not have the time or inclination to make graven images, as my craft projects largely revolve around my friends' babies, and they tend not to like statues of Baal.

Religion is something I can manage quite well, thank you very much, and I shall take my gold star and go to the top of the class. But then you go and bring all this grace and love stuff into it, and I fall flat on my face.

The whole "not into religion" thing is all about how being a Christian is about being forgiven and learning about God's grace, and loving other people, and this is Not A Good Thing if, like me, you are profoundly unsociable and spent much of your first 20 years desiring nothing more than to be left alone. This is not a good start in the loving people thing, as sitting in the corner with an Enid Blyton book doesn't help anybody. Trust me, I've tried. On the other hand, I suppose when you're starting from the viewpoint that other people are largely to be endured, you at least skip the part where you can only love the nice ones.

My point is this: that sometimes we have to learn to love people, even when we think they are highest order wazzocks (I am so pleased to get to use that word), and Christians can be a useful source of practice material. Actually, I'm not sure that was my point.

Hyperbole and a Half: This is Why I'll Never be an Adult

Thanks to Small Corner for the find. I love this. This is how I work.

Hyperbole and a Half: This is Why I'll Never be an Adult